BB08 - could it get any worse?

Last week the most popular search terms which ended up at my blog were “Rima” and “Rima bb08″. Now that of course was because last Friday night on BB08, Rima broke her leg during FNL and so I imagine there were a few worried viewers wondering what had happened to their favourite - now what was the term Ben used? Ah that’s right - height challenged housemate.

It was probably also due to the fact that there were a number of “tasteful” photographs, that her husband claims Rima is “quite happy with” circulating the net.

Excellent.

Now BB has sunk to the level of “dwarf porn” - not that Rima is in fact a dwarf, she says she has a very rare condition, so rare in fact that the condition was named after her.

Any normal reality television program might have stopped there, but BB doesn’t know where the line is, so they got together with another fellow who doesn’t know where the line is and asked him if he’d like to enter the house as a guest.

Recently described in a seminar I attended as the “Sum of all our fears”, enter Corey Worthington, a minor, aged just 17, now a guest in the freak show that is Big Brother 08.

To supervise him, they’ve challenged the recently evicted nanna, Terri, who cites her influences as Pauline Hanson and so you know, is the modicum of tolerance, with the task of guiding Corey in the house.

Her entry caused a full two minutes of continuous bleeping as the housemates expressed their joy at seeing the oldest ever housemate back again, a housemate they themselves chose to evict.

Channel 10, I can handle the f-word, but call me squeamish, references to dwarf porn after my Sunday roast do disturb me.

Excuse me. I need to shower. I feel a little dirty.

Thinner is better

I know, I know, you were thinking I was about to post about Fashion Week again… you were weren’t you? But no.

Today I’m just drooling over the keyboard at the Mac Book Air. Noice.

And why is this slim technology my focus for right now? Well I want to win one. Or an iPhone. But preferably a Mac Book Air. You might want to win one too? The place to check out is Upstart Blogger.

btw if you are thinking of starting a blog - there are some useful tips on this site.

In other thin news, today I signed up (but haven’t paid a deposit yet) for a kickstart fitness program. Two weeks of hell starting May 12. So at the end of May I should be thinner, fitter and companion to a new computer. And that will be noice.

Bloggers and their readers - a special relationship?

Being a blogger, one of the fascinating things for me is thinking about this new blogosphere world and the relationships we make as bloggers and readers. I get why I love reading blogs… because writing one myself I’m keen to see what others write. And of course I love the interaction between bloggers. The commenting, the discussion. I love your reaction to what I write… even when I’m put firmly back in my box! :)

But there is another group of readers - the readers who don’t blog themselves. The lovely River is a case in point. (although maybe you do have a private blog?)

So when Bo contacted me and asked if I’d help her in her research into that relationship, I was keen. If you’re a blog reader and you don’t have a blog yourself - she’s looking for you:

Do you have a favourite blogger that you want to talk about?

I am an Honours student from the University of Queensland, Australia and I am conducting an email-based survey that looks at the experiences that blog readers have with their favourite bloggers.

To take part in this research you cannot be a blogger yourself and you cannot know the blogger offline.

AND

Please note that for ethical and legal issues you MUST be 18+ years of age and an Australian Citizen to partake in this research

If this sounds like you and you would like to participate in this original and exciting research project then please email Bo at:

s4029966@student.uq.edu.au

All inquiries are very much appreciated!

Bo McGrath
School of English, Media Studies & Art History, 4th Floor, Michie Bld
University of Queensland

I look forward to reading the final paper Bo, good luck!

Me and Chas Licciardello

Claiming that my son is a huge fan and would be sick-makingly jealous if I had my photo taken with him, I stood next to the (surprisingly not tall) Chas Licciardello from The Chaser and smiled.

Of course it’s me who is the big fan… and Hugamuga… but one doesn’t want to be so uncool. Oh except… um… I guess it’s pretty lame to then display the photo on your blog… And I don’t want to appear a stalker but that’s 2/5!

I took the family to The Chaser’s Age of Terror Variety Hour at His Majesty’s Theatre this week. I was amused, I laughed out loud, I sniggered, I wondered if we’re going to have a problem in the future recycling all those reusable green shopping bags…

Hugamuga LOVED it.

It’s like a Uni Review crossed with the Chaser’s TV show. The demographic was young. It was fun.

Details of the show.

Speaking of things happening in Perth… apparently the World Blog Awards are in our fair city in August…

Brain space - the zen of blogging

I can’t tell you how often people ask me how I find the time to blog, but the truth is where others might meditate, or do some yoga, or pray… I blog.

I find it relaxing. To let my consciousness stream via the keyboard onto a white screen. To play with the words. To shape and reshape my thoughts.

Blogging opens my mind and releases the frantic thoughts that buzz inside my head.

When I blog, I’m not thinking about all the jobs I haven’t done, the mountain of work awaiting me. How I might approach a meeting tomorrow, what words to achieve my goal with that report. Not to mention the housework piling up, the kids’ dinner, health, glasses… and where is Groover anyway?

I just blog.

I just am.

I add a photo. I jot down a few tags. I select the categories. I hit publish.

My thought bubble, now words on a screen, floats away into the sunset.

My mind is clear.

Nirvana.

Wordpress 2.5: don’t be scared

There has been quite a lot of talk on forums and in blogs about 2.5 and for those of you who are not on Wordpress it must be getting a bit boring - and people can we move on please! - This, I promise will be my last post on it. Two of two.

So I upgraded last night and this is the first post completely using the new format.

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And this view of the screenshot is the first image I’ve uploaded using the new interface which I might say is bloody marvellous with options to do captions and descriptions and to align it in the centre if you wish! (although my theme means that I have to centre manually)

As you can see I’m quite taken with 2.5. As are others.

Apart from the image and gallery functions (untested yet), I like the new layout. I like the webstats on the dashboard, I like the automatic upgrade of the plugins - man that saves some time - I’m lukewarm about the widgets interface - now you have to choose which sidebar you’re looking at - I quite liked having all the sidebars displayed - but apart from that I’m really happy.

Of course there are some who aren’t enjoying the new interface but you can’t please everyone I guess.

To those who say - don’t fix what ain’t broke - I say bah humbug! How boring would life be if we stood still. But then I’m a girl who likes change (as my many theme changes will attest).

But do your homework. Maybe you’d like to wait a little longer. Make sure all the bugs are discovered. Fair enough. You don’t have to upgrade.

If you do want to - the instructions on Wordpress worked really well for me.

Here’s what I did:

1. Downloaded the new files and extracted them into a folder I could find again.
2. Disabled plugins
3. Deleted my wp-includes folder in my FTP program (I use Smart FTP). This took a little while.
4. Uploaded the new wp-includes folder. Again this took some time.
5. Deleted my wp-admin folder.
6. Uploaded the new wp-admin folder
7. Copied across and overwrote all the files in the root Wordpress directory making sure my wp-config file was not overwritten.
8. Copied across and overwrote the index.php file in wp-content
9. Opened a browser and went to wp-admin/install.php and followed the prompts
10. Went to the plug-in section and activated the plug-ins updating as I went

Piece of the preverbial.

And if the Automatic Upgrade Plug-in works for you - even easier.

Update: More opinions (including mine… again)

Okay enough Geek Speak… normal blogging will resume shortly…

But before I go - and if you’re still reading - you’ll appreciate this little gem.

Interview with The Food Pornographer

Please go to Aussie Bloggers and check out my interview with The Food Pornographer.

tfp was charming, fun and open to interview and I’m sure you will love getting to know her as I did.

If you like, download an mp3 of our interview, which is only slightly edited. :)

Or check out the youtube video below to see how the tfp photographs the food in front of her.

You can also go to her site to see the photos of the food we ate. Yum!

Bloggy Bling and Paying it Forward

I’ve received some lovely bloggy bling recently and would like to thank Meg for this beautiful friendship award. It says:

A ball is a circle, no beginning, no end
It keeps us together like our circle of friends.
But the treasure inside for you to see
is the treasure of friendship you’ve granted to me.
Today I pass the friendship ball to you.

So who do I pass the friendship ball too… well this is tricky as so many of my bloggy friends already have this award.

I thought,this time, I’d pass it to some work colleagues who also blog…
James, Miss Fortune and Hotwater. Come on down!

Then I was awarded the You Cheer Me Up award from Lightening.

Wow, there are so many people who cheer me up!

Here are just five: h&b, thirdcat, Drew, Karen and TFP.

Pay It Forward

And to top it all off I’m playing Pay It Forward (thanks to Meg).

So here’s how Pay it Forward works:

The Gift: Well I love reading and cards so… I thought for my gift I’d give either a pack of cards or a book, a novel.

The “Rules”: Simply leave a comment on this post specifying if you’d like cards or a book and if a book which genre. However by entering you must be willing to run (or have already done so) your own Pay it Forward initiative on your blog IF you are selected a winner.

Closing: This competition will close on Thursday 20th March (2008) at 5.00 pm (Perth time).

Good luck!

Oh and just to finish… imagine getting the first question on Who Wants to be a Millionaire… wrong.

Irony and Ornery

I was so angry today at work… not grumpy angry just… grrrr… “why are you bothering me!” angry.

Honestly if one more person had rung me with another inane, stupid question that if they’d thought about for hmmm maybe ONE minute they might have worked it out themselves.

My job is not doing your jobs for you people!

I shouted at the phone after hanging up quite a lot today.

But that’s not where the irony lay…

Today I spent the day encouraging, cajolling, organising about 30 people to get their heads around blogging.

That’s right. We get to blog at work.

Well… they do.

The irony is that I - possibly the person most keen on blogging in my division, in my state - don’t get a blog.

Typical.

I might start one anyway just to be ornery. What d’ya reckon?

…………

In good news - I have found my favourite jeans which have been lost for a week. And tomorrow I get to go to Broome. W00t.

photo credit: blatch

When reading beats blogging

I’m sorry world.

Tonight I read my book… my heroine is about to make a catastrophic mistake and the tension is unbearable.

Oooh that nasty Mrs Danvers!

Plus, must watch So You Think You Can Dance? - I’m addicted!

(reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier - again)

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